Will Pawtucket become the next Rhode Island community to allow residents to raise chickens and honeybees?Nancy Whit, a representative of the Pawtucket Healthy Foods Coalition, has sent letters to Mayor...

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By
Michael P. McKinney
Posted Oct. 7, 2013 @ 12:01 am

Will Pawtucket become the next Rhode Island community to allow residents to raise chickens and honeybees?

Nancy Whit, a representative of the Pawtucket Healthy Foods Coalition, has sent letters to Mayor Donald R. Grebien proposing ordinance changes that would make that possible.

Whit says in the letter that raising chickens would benefit people in Pawtucket by increasing access to eggs, a low-cost protein source. Those eggs would be more nutritious, she said, “due to the varied diet of residential chicken hens” and would reduce the risk of disease “attributed to the crowded conditions of commercial egg production facilities.”

Barrington, Providence and South Kingstown have already enacted regulations allowing residents to raise chickens, reflecting a national trend of small-scale or residential farming in urban settings.

In Pawtucket, the proposals on chickens and bees arose from a “Healthy Places by Design” grant awarded to several Rhode Island communities. The Pawtucket Citizens Development Corporation was commissioned to run a week-long forum soliciting ideas to make the city a healthier place to live, according to Andrew Pierson, an associate with the group.

Pierson said the Pawtucket Healthy Food Coalition emerged, including representatives from such local organizations as New Urban Farmers and Farm Fresh Rhode Island. It also includes Whit, who represents Pawtucket Citizens Development Corporation on the coalition.

The corporation had consultant Horsley Witten Group provide draft regulations for raising chickens and honey bees, drawing on ordinances in other Rhode Island communities. The proposed language specifies that chickens would have to be kept in a hen house and fenced outdoor enclosure that would need to meet a set of requirements.

In her March 29 letter to Grebien, Whit says only one hen could be kept per 800 square feet of land, with a maximum of six chickens per lot, mirroring the language in Providence’s ordinance.

“At this population level, chicken hens make very little noise or waste,” her letter states. And, she added, the proposal specifically prohibits any roosters — “which are generally responsible for the noise associated with poultry” — from being kept on residential property.

In her letter supporting honeybees raised at home, Whit wrote that “residential gardens are more likely to bear produce if pollinators can easily access blooms.”

Whit wrote that the bees would be permitted only on lots of at least 7,000 square feet. “This helps ensure that residential honeybee populations do not present a nuisance or run out of available food sources,” she said.

The draft regulations say residential beekeepers would have to register yearly with the state Department of Environmental Management’s Division of Agriculture. They would also have to get a zoning-compliance certificate from the city every year.

The proposals will be considered at a joint meeting of the City Council Ordinance Committee and City Council Animal Control Committee.

Douglas Hadden, spokesman for Grebien, said the mayor “is deferring any comment until the City Council process plays out.”

The idea of residents raising chickens has not always met with support in Rhode Island. In Cranston, Mayor Allan W. Fung last year vetoed its City Council-approved ordinance change that would have let residents raise and keep chickens in their back or side yards. Fung said he was not certain that allowing ownership of chickens, “while for noble purposes such as personal food consumption of eggs, is a good policy idea at this time, given the potential that any irresponsible owners may contribute to the existing rodent problem.”